this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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Google Keeps Making Smartphones Worse (jacobin.com)
submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by JairajDevadiga@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
178 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Google’s Android, the world’s most widely used mobile operating system, started life as open-source software. In its quest for ever-greater profits, the tech giant has been gradually eroding Android’s open-source nature over the last decade.

Originally published on The Lever, but that one asks you to sign up.

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[–] Flukas88@feddit.it 33 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Sadly iOS is not much better

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

But is it even slightly better? It's debatable. Both are completely awful, but I guess iOS is just terrible in different ways.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

My last iPhone was a iPhone 5. Or 6, maybe?

Fast forward, and I've been on Android until right now, when I got an iPhone 16 in a loss-leader sale.

...And I am astounded by how much worse it is. My old jailbroken iPhone's UI was both simpler and 100x times more customizable and useful than all these bizzare required gestures; I spent days trying to teach my Mom and grandpa how to use it, to no avail. At the same time, its as uncustomizable as ever.

I had basically every feature the 16 has now, like the action button, and more. And it somehow feels slower in browsing than my SD845 Android 9 phone.

It wasn't perfect back then, but the App Store is flooded with garbage now.

I literally want my iPhone 5 back. WTF has Apple been doing?

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They've been busy reading the history books to find out what Android did 4 years ago so that they can start developing those same features today. Any remaining time and effort went into creating vacuous marketing hype.

[–] brucethemoose@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Irony is Android felt way more intuitive, including to my non techy family, even in the worst case (EG Samsung devices with their spammy UI).

[–] JeremyHuntQW12@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You can't sideload on iOS at all.

[–] flop_leash_973@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

You can, but it is a pita. Having to buy dev certs and sign the .ipa file, etc. But technically, if you really want to, you can.

[–] Flukas88@feddit.it 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In eu you kinda can for some degree

[–] chaosCruiser@futurology.today 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Would be really curious to find out how that works. Got any good sources?